Depeche Mode’s Peter Gordeno reveals his stadium-filling Roland rig

With just hours to go until showtime at Prague’s Eden Arena, Peter Gordeno of Depeche Mode slipped an Access All Areas pass around Roland’s neck and invited us to soundcheck. Armed with tunes that span from 1989’s Personal Jesus to this year’s Where’s The Revolution, the Essex trio are the dark lords of British synth-pop – so it’s no surprise that their live rig is a treasure-trove of Roland gear. “We’re a very electronic band,” explains Peter in this behind-the-scenes video interview, “and sometimes we even have three keyboard players playing.” Now, you’ll get right into the heart…

Recording and mixing vocals; the basics

The boom in DAW software means that anyone can start recording vocals at home; you just need a vocalist, a computer, a mic and a little know how. Paul White, editor-in-chief of Sound on Sound magazine shares his tricks and tips for getting it right every time. Vocals are invariably the most important part of…

The Roland RE-201 Space Echo Story

By Jim Bybee Over the years, Roland has created a significant number of products that have gone on to become legendary. One of the earliest examples is the Roland RE-201 Space Echo, a combination tape echo and reverb introduced in 1974. While Roland didn’t invent the tape echo itself, they took a fragile and often…

Killer Recording Tips

By Paul White (Sound On Sound Editor-In-Chief) The main problems associated with making a great recording can be broken down into two areas — the sounds you record and the way you mix them. Read on and learn about both… You can make a release-quality recording using affordable hardware such as one of the Boss…

How to use EQ – Music Production

By Paul White, Editor-in-Chief, Sound on Sound magazine As far as music production is concerned, Equalisation is really just a fancy word for tone control — a device that can cut or boost particular parts of the audio spectrum. EQ can be used both to create new tonalities and to help correct or equalise problems…

Tuning up your music PC

It seems today’s musicians must be part artist and part IT professional. It’s a difficult dance that requires knowledge, time, and patience in order to achieve a level of success. The intention of this series of blog posts is to help with the IT part or the equation. My goal is to help with questions…

What is SUPERNATURAL?

The inside story on one of the most profound music technology breakthroughs for a generation. Welcome to the sublime and beautiful world of SuperNATURAL. Things which seem simple are often complex, and this is especially true when applied to musical instruments. To recreate the sound of an acoustic instrument, you can’t just sample it –…

The Recording Maze

As Editor in Chief of Sound On Sound, I’ve had the privilege of testing all types of studio gear, from the very simple to the very expensive. However, you may be surprised to learn that the choice of equipment is not necessary of the greatest importance when it comes to end results. Certainly some equipment…

Tips for Playing Live

Playing live on stage, it has been claimed, requires a form of heroism bordering on insanity. But if you’re brave enough to take the plunge, how can you get your audience loving your songs as much as you do? Well, as everyone from The Who to Iron Maiden have proved down the years, it helps…

Writing a song

All the gear in the world is of no avail if you haven’t got that all important component – a good song. Let PowerOn guide you through the basics of harnessing your inspiration to build a killer composition from scratch. OK, so you’ve gone out and spent your hard-earned cash on the latest piece of…

How to record vocals

Capturing the nuances of the human voice is invariably the trickiest part of any recording session. But have no fear: our expert guide to recording vocals is here to help you. It doesn’t matter what type of recording system you use, hardware or software, the human voice is the most important instrument you’ll ever record….